A higher proportion of persons living at latitudes of 35° North or greater have celiac disease or avoid gluten than persons living south of this latitude, researchers report in the June issue of Gastroenterology. This difference was independent of race or ethnicity, socioeconomic status, or body mass index. Several autoimmune

Deaths from almost all cancers in the United States decreased from 1975 to 2012—except for liver cancer. In the Annual Report to the Nation on the Status of Cancer, 1975–2012, published online by the National Cancer Institute, A. Blythe Ryerson et al report that the overall cancer death rates for

Not all patients with multiple episodes of diverticulitis should undergo preventative surgery, shows a Markov decision model published in the January 2016 issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. Elective surgery after 2 episodes produces fewer quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) than surgery after 3 episodes or conservative or medical treatments, the model found.

Medicare and Medicaid Service payments vary greatly across the US, but are not associated with the volume of Medicare beneficiaries or overall per-capita health care costs for each state, researchers report in the March issue of Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. There are large geographic disparities in costs of health care, including costs of

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections have developed and spread at different rates in different countries, affecting outcomes of therapy, according to the October issue of Gastroenterology. Specific details of each population must therefore be considered in designing prevention and treatment programs. Although there are many treatment options for HCV infection,

About the Author

Dr. Kristine Novak is the science editor for Gastroenterology and Clinical Gastroenterology and Hepatology. She has worked as an editor at biomedical research journals and as a science writer for 15 years, covering advances in gastroenterology, hepatology, cancer, immunology, biotechnology, molecular genetics, and clinical trials. She has a PhD in cell biology and an interest in all areas of medical research.